


Into the Dark

by UnchartedFireflies



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:53:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnchartedFireflies/pseuds/UnchartedFireflies
Summary: Three friends strung together by fate, two people so in love it blinds them, and a lot of guns and treasure.***Irvine Cristofaro was never the same after Sam Drake’s death. So many unsaid feelings, and even more undone adventures. But when Sam returns with a quest that will decide, Sam, Nathan and Irvine are left wondering if any of them will make it out alive.
Relationships: Sam Drake/OC
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Irvine sat at her desk, staring out of the circular window in the attic. It illuminated the dust that danced around the room geometrically. The trees swayed in the light breeze, their limbs groping the stained glass. It was peaceful up here, surrounded by copious piles of journals, photo books and other boxes filled with stuff she can't even remember. 

Her eyes travelled down the desk, towards her hands. They picked at one another, an eternal fight to the death, who's cuticles were going to be torn to threads of boredom today? Like she always did, Irvine finally let her tired eyes rest on the photo in front of her. Fingers fluttered over the frame and picked the metal back off. The cork backing fell dramatically, and the photo dropped like a feather. Irvine slid it off the table. Three teenagers, one of which she barely recognised to be herself. Her abyss was barely noticeable back then. They all smiled widely, before they knew what was coming to them and how fast it would hit them. Like a truck in the night at the mercy of an exhausted driver who just wanted to crawl into bed at the nearest motel. She smiled lightly at the fingers propped up behind her head, forming bunny ears. They could be traced behind the back of Nathan; to Sam. 

The blood rushed to Irvine's ears, the familiar whooshing sound coming right back to her. Her small smile fell, the clouds causing an overcast in her brain that she felt guilty for. It had been 15 years, Nathan was over it, why couldn't Irvine get over it? 

Irvine flipped the photo over, seeing the messy handwriting on the back.

Vita non est vivere, sed valera vita est.

Life is not about living, but to live a good life.

Sam never got to do either. 

This thought made Irvine's breath hitch in the back of her throat, her bodies revenge for her terrible imagination. With each rise and fall of her chest, the cloud cleared a little more. The daily fog was over. 

She ran her thumb over Sam's paper face one last time and put the photo back in it's frame. 

It felt awfully lonely in the attic now. It needed noise. Something to distract from the deafening silence. Irvine went to the window, looking out of it one last time, before pulling the mechanism. When it slid open the sounds of people came flooding in like a shop on Black Friday. It was comforting to her, hearing other people live their equally complicated lives. 

***

Nathan sat at his desk, his head resting melancholic in his tired hand. His other one periodically stamping the paper in front of him. It was getting late, and he really should be getting home to Elena, but there was so much more work to be done. He decided to stay a little while longer. 

The sounds of waves outside made Nathan seasick. He still wasn't used to being on the water after all these years. He could hear the highway not far away, the commotion even at this time of night surprised him still. 

He picked up his phone, checking the time. 22:00. There were no notifications on the screen. Nathan decided to call Elena to let her know he would be heading home soon. 

The phone rang three times before she answered. 

"Hey"

"Hi. Listen, I won't be home for another half hour at least. Don't wait up" Nathan tried his best to sound sorry. 

Elena froze for a moment, "I didn't"

"How thoughtful of you." He laughed, before something else popped into his mind. "Hey have you heard from Irvine recently? She's been ignoring my calls and texts"

Elena hummed solemnly, "No. She's being ignoring mine too. Maybe leave a voicemail?" 

"Sure..."Nathan paused, "aren't you worried?"

"About Irvine? All the damn time" Elena laughed down the phone, knowing the matter wasn't funny in the slightest. "But if there's something I know about her, it's that she will be fine"

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe I'm just overthinking it." 

"She'll come around. She always does. I'll let you go and finish your work, let me know when you are on your way home"

"Will do, love you"

"Same to you"

Nathan hung up, but didn't let the phone leave his hand for a moment before typing in another number on the screen. It was a number he had been phoning for years, with about a 50% answer rate. 

It rang out. It always did. But this time, when the automated voice told him to leave a message after the beep, he did. 

"Hi Irvine. It's Nate...again. I was just phoning to say I missed the memo! You know, the one where it said answering your phone was frowned upon...." Nathan realised now probably wasn't the time for his wise-cracks, "anyways, I was just calling to say, phone me back? Okay..bye"

A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought. Nathan frowned. "Sorry pal, we're closed!" He shouted, hoping they would get the message and leave him alone. A few moment passed before the knocking resumed. Drake groaned, "didn't you hear me? I said we are closed", he grew irate. For a second it had stopped, and he for sure thought they had left. But after one last knock on the door he grew tired of it and stood up, knocking his chair backwards slightly. "Not that that bloody matters" Nathan grumbled, pulling the door open so hard it caused a breeze on his linen shirt. 

In the doorway, with his back to him, stood a man in a Borg lined, washed out, blue denim jacket and a pair of stone coloured jeans. He seemed to be looking over something on the table. 

"Can I help?" Nathan asked awkwardly, still standing in the doorway. Something seemed off. 

"Yeah, uh..", the mans voice was lined thick with the Big Apple, "I'm looking for my little brother." He turned around, "he's about your height, little leaner"

Nathan stared in disbelief, taken aback by what he thought he was seeing. He shook his head and closed his eyes, unable to believe that he saw his big brother in front of him and that it wasn't a nasty figment of his imagination. Something stung his throat, perhaps it was the disbelief, or it could have been the lump that was continually rising with each second he stood here. "Sam?..." he managed to choke out. 

Sam blinked hard, nodding slightly as if trying to hold back his own emotion. "It's nice to see you again, Nathan" he smiled a little. 

Nathan's eyes lit up, and he instantly engulfed Sam in a hug that was 15 years coming. He wasn't sure how this was happening, or if it even was, but he was glad either way. 

"Woah, woah. Take it easy" Sam was knocked back by his brothers overwhelming display of relief. 

"But how..." Nathan asked, "I-I saw you get shot"

"You did" Sam lifted his cotton shirt up to reveal three dark bullet holes clustered together from where he had been shot in the escape from the prison. "But the doctors," he put his fingers up around the doctors, "patched me back up and threw me right back in the cell"

Nathan frowned, "Sam I made calls...I looked everywhere"

"They wanted to make sure I was never going to see the light of day again" Samuel said, walking past Nathan into his office, "Nathan, we killed a guard...they left me to rot in that jail cell and I tell ya' I almost did"

Nathan began to feel faint, his head spinning below him. "I swear if I knew I..." he began, but his elder brother cut him off. 

"would have came looking. I know Nathan. But what's important is that I'm here now. I'm free" he smiled a little bit. Nathan held onto the wall like his life depended on it, resting on archiving boxes that sat stacked up behind him. "Hey you can't faint on me now I only just got here" 

"I um...I need some air" Nate almost choked out, stumbling for the door.

The cold wind hit him in the face like a slap, he inhaled it heavily, like he had never taken a breath in his life and he was only now just learning what it felt like. His shaking hands looked around for the frozen banister that separated them from the murky waters below. 

"How..how did you get out?" he began, "when-.." Nathan watched as Sam took out a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it up with a single flick of his silver plated lighter. He took a massive draw, "how did you even get here, find me?"

Sam exhaled the smoke into the chilly air, "alright slow down, slow down. Take a seat" Sam extended his arms to his little brother, pushing him back onto the bench a little. "I want to hear about you.."

Nate sighed, "whats to tell?"

"Well I called a couple of your old contacts and they told me some crazy ass stories" Sam chuckled, "gut-shot hanging from a derailed train in the Himalayas?" The elder Drake leaned in whilst taking another draw from his stick of death, smiling in disbelief. 

"Yeah...that actually happened" Nate smiled at the memory. Part of him missed the adventure of his old life. 

Sam scooted closer to Nate, putting his arm along the back of the bench, "Come on man, what did I miss?" 

Nathan slapped his thighs, "Jesus, Sam, where do I even start?"

He stayed silent for a moment, staring his long lost brother deep in the eyes, "start with the best part"

There was a mutual pause while Nathan thought. Staring out on the moonlit water gave him a moment to reflect on all the things he did over the past years. How many people he has met, the sights he has seen. 

They spoke for hours, discussing all of the things he had done, while Sam told the occasion story from prison. They watched sun come up and the stars disappear. It was like Sam hadn't even been gone for 15 years. The brothers laughed, reminiscing over tales of their childhood. 

The morning commuters began to hog the highway, their horns blaring through the fog of stress from those caught in a traffic jam. 

"Oh and this one time, Irvine and I-.." began Nathan, but he was soon cut off. 

"Irvine?"


	2. Chapter Two

"Irvine?"

"C'mon, you remember Irvine?" 

***  
Irvine walked down the street, the hot sun only just beginning to set. It was a frequent occasion she was wandering about the neighbourhood on her lonesome. She had no one else to hang out with. 

She had memorised the quickest way to the library like the back of her hand and every day she took the same route. By the corner store run by the old couple who stayed in the rickety house by the orphanage. Behind the bars and pubs that she tried to avoid late at night. 

The front doors to the library were magnificent she found, carefully sculpted limestone centuries old. It was small things like this that fascinated her. 

There was never anybody here, so empty that they were thinking of defunding the library. Irvine wasn't sure where else she would go when her father exploded. It was filled with so much untapped information that the concept of reading it all took her mind off the troubles of her home life. 

"Good morning, Irvine" the lady at the front desk said, like she did every morning. This morning she must have been in a good mood. Irvine smiled at her sheepishly, her eyes darting right back down to her feet after only a few seconds of contact. 

The smell of books greeted her once more like a hug she seldom received and she wandered straight to the history section. 

Irvine was obsessed with history, imagining herself going on crazy adventures one day to find lost treasures. She knew if she studied hard enough she could make it happen. Only one book was left in her list of books left to read. One about pirates. 

As she wandered over, she heard the light chatter of some boys on the other side of the room. Irvine reached for the book, but another limb had been convinced of the same idea, and now she was in competition with another person. 

She let go, turning to look at whoever had the same idea and her. Two teenage boys stood, one significantly taller, and presumably older than the other. They looked at her two. And saw her yellow eye. 

Irvine saw them glance at it, it was very rare that someone had the willpower not to draw a disgustingly sympathetic contort. The younger one held the book in his hand. Irvine reckoned she was more his age. 

"Oh...sorry." Irvine muttered. There was an awkward silence, the older boy, with his pale green eyes and juvenile freckles pressed his lips into a thin line. 

"You can have it" 

Irvine smiled weakly, "Thank you. It's the only one I haven't read"

The younger ones eyes went wide, "woah, you've read all of these books?!" He sounded enchanted by the idea that someone could have so much spare time. 

"Yep"

"So you like history then?" The older one asked, somehow his accent was a little different from his infant counterpart. "So do we, I'm Sam, and this is Nathan. Drake"

She outstretched her hand towards the two, "Irvine Cristofaro"  
***  
"Don't think I could ever forget her" Sam stared at his fingers, not realising he was picking at his nails. "What is she up to these days?" 

Nathan tilted his head, "Sam, she was with me on all of those trips. Everywhere I went, she came with me. Irvine didn't take it well, you know. After I told her about your, well, Death, she disappeared for a year. No one heard from her"

"Didn't think she would have cared that much" 

"Are you kidding?!" Drake's voice went up an octave, "you two were inseparable"

Sam sniffed lightly, trying to distract from the guilt he felt. Deep down inside of himself he knew that walking back into her life would only cause her trouble. That's the only reason he was here, to cause trouble. But the torture that would come from knowing she was out there unaware of Sam really being alive would eat him up inside. "Yeah, well..."

Nathan grabbed his phone from his pocket, holding it out to Sam. "Phone her."

"Nah I can't do that"

"Sam...phone her. At least let her know you're alive Jesus"

He reluctantly took the phone from his hand, the number already dialed. All he had to do was press the green button. Sam hesitated, before standing up and taking a deep breath. "Ok. Ok"

His legs carried him away from Nate, afraid of feeling vulnerable in front of his little brother. No attempt to contain the bundle of nerves that became him would ever work. With a puff of air that came free from somewhere deep inside a crevice in his chest, he pressed the button. Sam could feel the sweat his hands were generating, scared that the phone would slip from his hands and between the wooden grates, lost forever to the merciless water. 

The phone rung three times, before it stopped. And a voice began to ramble. 

"Nathan! I am so so sorry, I've not had a moment away from this computer. The deadline for my book is next week, and then it goes to the editor. How are you? Are you and Elena still coming over for dinner later this week?" 

Sams cheeks flushed a shade of red he thought might stick, like a tattoo of shame. No matter what he thought he might say, no words came out. They got caught in his throat, locked in a cage like he had been all those years. 

"Nathan?" 

Every memory from the life before came rushing back, a curdled tsunami of each word he ever spoke to her. All he wanted was to show her a sign of his livelihood. 

"Hello?" 

But all he could do was hang up. 

"So? What did she say?" Nathan asked as Sam handed the phone back to him. 

"Oh, um, nothing. It went to voicemail" he lied through his teeth, too embarrassed to tell his brother that he froze up, and couldn't say a word to his best friend, who definitely still thinks he's buried in a foreign country somewhere. 

Nathan scoffed, "Yeah. Not surprising" there was a moment, "Oh my god, you need to meet Elena. Come to dinner on Thursday? We would love to have you. I mean, I should probably explain this to her first"

"Nathan I'm in trouble..."


End file.
